Some more poly resin questions

[berry79]

I tried searching again before this post, but almost every post shows up when you search for polyester resin. I have few questions on some things I confused about.

1. I read somewere that you only need to add wax to the resin for the last layer so it cures with out being tacky, this way it can be sanded. My question is what about in between lay-ups. My deck is about 12' long and I will have to walk on it between layering. I will only be doing 1 layer a day due to the time I have when I get off work. Will it be OK to walk on this tacky surface without harm?

2.How much time can I wait between layers without having to prep the previous surface using the unwaxed resin?

3.I bought a bottle of what I beleive is the wax additive but I'm not sure. The person at the store never heard of adding the wax to resin, so they were not really helpfull. I found something on the shelf next to the hardener called Modifier C. Is this the right stuff? If it is what is the ration you add when mixing your resin?

4.What does everyone use to measure the hardner? It seems like it's a very small amount. I bought a 5gal pail of resin and the hardener for 5gal is like a 1/4 of a cup.

5.What is the best material to use for tabbing when strength is needed? I have been to a few marine supply stores and the only thing they sell for tape is cloth, which I have heard is very weak. I have 1oz. mat and some 1808, will it be better to cut one of these into strips for tabbing?

Thanks for any help.

 

[redfury]

Re: Some more poly resin questions

I tried searching again before this post, but almost every post shows up when you search for polyester resin. I have few questions on some things I confused about.

1. I read somewere that you only need to add wax to the resin for the last layer so it cures with out being tacky, this way it can be sanded. My question is what about in between lay-ups. My deck is about 12' long and I will have to walk on it between layering. I will only be doing 1 layer a day due to the time I have when I get off work. Will it be OK to walk on this tacky surface without harm?
You can walk on the new fiberglass no problem. It actually shouldn't be tacky, it just stays tacky for a period of time for the day you work with it.

2.How much time can I wait between layers without having to prep the previous surface using the unwaxed resin?

I'm not entirely sure what the period of time is, hopefully someone else can chime in on that. I lightly sanded and wiped down my transom between days of glassing.
3.I bought a bottle of what I beleive is the wax additive but I'm not sure. The person at the store never heard of adding the wax to resin, so they were not really helpfull. I found something on the shelf next to the hardener called Modifier C. Is this the right stuff? If it is what is the ration you add when mixing your resin?
My poly resin requires only 1-1.4% catalyst ( hardener ). That equates out to 5cc/ml of catalyst to 500cc/ml...which equates to roughly 1/2 quart of resin. 5cc's is about the amount of liquid the cap should hold if your cap is about the size around as a C cell battery.

4.What does everyone use to measure the hardner? It seems like it's a very small amount. I bought a 5gal pail of resin and the hardener for 5gal is like a 1/4 of a cup.
We have a company called Axman surplus that I get disposable syringes from, but all I've had to use is the cap.
5.What is the best material to use for tabbing when strength is needed? I have been to a few marine supply stores and the only thing they sell for tape is cloth, which I have heard is very weak. I have 1oz. mat and some 1808, will it be better to cut one of these into strips for tabbing?

Thanks for any help.

Biaxial cloth is going to be your best bet for the strength. If you want to secure the stringers before the Biax, cloth or mat will do just fine .

I'm hopefully going to get at least one stringer done this weekend. If all goes well, I'll have encapsulated the stringer in biax, and then set into the boat with PL premium, and then tabbed in with more biax after I radius the corners.

Biax is tricky when you cut it, it will fall apart easily,so take care when handling it. I got my biax in a 10 inch wide roll 100ft long to make it easy on myself when doing the stringers.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Some more poly resin questions

Forget the wax, you don't need it.

When you said wait between layers and walking on it I'm not exactly sure what you mean. If you you're putting more than one layer down, put all of them on at the same time, no need to do one at a time.

You have a day or two even with the low cost resin before you need to grind it before applying the next layer(s). That is if there's no wax in it, and you haven't taken it out in the sun.

You can buy paper and/or plastic tubs that are calibrated in oz's and liters (grams) for resin, you can also get small calibrated plastic cups with the same markings. I like the Plastic tubs because they can be re-used, the resin will pop right out of them when it gets hard.

You'll need to use about 1% catalyst in the summer so the math is easy using the metric system. For ever 100 cc's (grams) of resin you need 1 cc of catalyst, just scale it from there.

 

[berry79]

Re: Some more poly resin questions

Thanks for the help guys. I didn't know that the 1808 will fall apart when cut. I don't need that, so I guess I place an order here shortly for some biax tape. I would like to put all layers down at once but I was not sure about doing that. This will the top side of my deck which will faired smooth, painted with awlgrip then I will paint sections with kiwi grip. The seems of 1808 will be butted up and staggered between layers. The sections I have are 38" wide and with the staggered seems I'm not sure I will be able to reach far enough to coat everything and roll and sqeegy out the bubbles succesfully.

 

[redfury]

Re: Some more poly resin questions

Oh, don't get me wrong, you can cut the biax, you just have to be careful when you handle it. I've got a 100ft roll and when I was handling the end, part of it just slid out of the stitching where I had my grip and pulled a little too much. Once I figured that out, cutting it and handling it in a thin strip was easy enough. However, if you have a use for the other stuff, go buy the pre cut...it's just easier and cleaner.

 

[berry79]

Re: Some more poly resin questions

Oh, don't get me wrong, you can cut the biax, you just have to be careful when you handle it. I've got a 100ft roll and when I was handling the end, part of it just slid out of the stitching where I had my grip and pulled a little too much. Once I figured that out, cutting it and handling it in a thin strip was easy enough. However, if you have a use for the other stuff, go buy the pre cut...it's just easier and cleaner.

Yeah I got other areas of the boat to tab things, and I need to order a few other things anyways. Thanks redfury.